Exoplanet: First Contact, Sci-Fi Western RPG Brought to Life

Certainly we see a lot of different independent game projects make their way to Kickstarter as a means to gather funding and attention. It’s a great resource for budding developers with big dreams, or even seasoned developers that wish to seek alternate means of funding their projects.

There’s one that has appeared just recently that might catch your eye, it certainly made me stop and do a double take. Exoplanet: First Contact. It’s almost the perfect premise, a Sci-Fi, western, action RPG with inspiration from Fallout, Firefly (the TV series) and The Elder Scrolls..

An inspired Sci-Fi Western, Exoplanet: First Contact takes us to new horizons, with a revolved and charismatic memorable characters.

This is being advertised as a true blend of technology and the wild west. You’re Jack Sharp, a man on a mission that’s traveled to the planet of K’Tharsis, a mining outpost turned into nearly an abandoned colony. You’re there with many others searching for the very valuable Antigravium. It’s a new gold rush.

The inspiration is for it is obviously there to invoke a sense of nostalgia, though they aren’t going to rely on that alone. The world they’re crafting has it’s own deep narrative of its own, and they’re using their own in-house game engine they’re calling the Sahara Engine. The focus is on a wide swathe of different elements it seems, from survival skills in a harsh environment, your ability to negotiate with the denizens of the planet and of course your mastery of the gun arts. Action is at the forefront, though they want to emphasize all the other great elements of RPG’s as well, such as having your actions having consequences within the greater world.

To help bring their dream to realization much more quickly, Alersteam are releasing story based content in chapters. The core game is apparently mostly done, so instead they want to continually update us with around 10-hour chunks of story via a chapter system.

Each chapter contains a significant narrative sequence with clear goals, critical decisions and visible consequences. Each chapter represents approximately ten hours of gameplay, not counting the side-quests or the additional exploration you can do.

To be honest, the fact that they have the majority of the game complete already and are looking to Kickstarter to help fund the finishing touches is a change from the norm. The hard part (and likely the most arduous tasks of development) is already over. What they’re promising is also very realistic in terms of what’s actually deliverable. The concern might be over when these chapters actually get released. Are we going to see a decent timetable for each one? Some have tried that approach (AAA titles nonetheless) with development petering off due to the pace, but perhaps this will be an exception to that.

Regardless, the concept is great and it looks fantastic so far. They’re on Kickstarter right now and are looking to raise $45,000 total with 29 days to go and $4,7826 spread over 260 backers.